WARNING!

WARNING!!!!!!!!

This blog can, and does contain language which many readers may find offensive. If you don't like swearing, it might be a good time to read a different blog...

Seriously. this is most certainly a blog written by an adult, containing adult language.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Well, it looks like its all gone a bit 'Titanic'

Well, I just couldn't wait.

It appears after a posting on THF by venerable Phoenix fan Tambo, that the proverbial shit has hit the metaphorical fan, and the EIHL is about to go with 6 teams next season:

Sheffield Steelers
Nottingham Panthers
Cardiff Devils
Coventry Blaze
Belfast Giants
Hull Stingrays

Allegedly, a board meeting took place today, to which ourselves, Edinburgh, and Newcastle were not invited. Indeed, it seems that the meeting may have taken place without the knowledge of the 3 excluded teams.

If this is true, then the EIHL is fucked. Sorry to be so blunt, but its true. Last time we had a 6 team league it died on its arse (the ISL). Seems some people either have very short memories, or are so ignorant and stupid that they can not see history repeating itself. Wankers.

So, what of the 3 'expendables'? Where do we go? What do we do? We're all doomed!

Not quite.

The obvious options are as follows:

1: The 3 teams approach Dundee, Fife, Paisley, and maybe Whitley, and form a new 'Northern LEague', similar to the EPL (4 imports, weekend only games).

2: The 3, plus Dundee, Fife, and maybe Paisley approach the EPL about forming a new Northern Division of the EPL, alngside the Sheffield Scimitars.

3: Newcastle and ourselves apply to the EPL. Edinburgh become SPL.

Of course, this could all be bollocks, but something tells me there is more than an element of the truth to all this.

Stay tuned, peeps...its gonna be a hell of a ride.

Quick blog...

My season review won't be up until after the play-offs, so you can expect that next week (it will give you all something to read over the bank holiday weekend).

And keep an eye out for a post this week regarding the state of the EIHL and what could be happening next (yes, I've done something similar already, but now we are at seasons end, more and more details are emerging).

Laters.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

That was the week that was.

So, lets recap the last 7 days then...

Sunday saw us face off against the Vipers, who were looking to secure their placing in the play-offs. Frankly, it was obvious even during the warm up, our lads were completely knackered. And once the game began, this tiredness showed even more. Plus, I'm sure that they guys had at least half an eye on Tuesdays game, and were trying to keep something in the tank in that regard.

So, Tuesday. Lets get it out of the way first. We lost. The giants took the CC 6-5 on agregate. Well done to them. We played as well as could be expected given the circumstances (outrageous fixture schedule, 5 guys dosed up on antibiotics), but Belfast were quite clearly fresher. We made them work for it, mind, but the better team won on the night.

Off ice, however, was a different story. What respect i had for the Giants organisation was somewhat erroded by the on site reports I recieved during the game. First off, there was a pretty major problem with the seating arrangements. We sold 120 tickets, apparently under the belief that these were for reserved seats. Upon arrival, we found that of this 120, only 75 had actuall seats, the remainder being forced to either stand, or sit on the stairs. This did not go down too well with the Phoenix contingent.

Then, there was no small amount of kerfuffle over the M.O.M. presentations, or lack thereof. What seems to ahve happened is that Belfast announced that Tony Hand was the Phoenix M.O.M., but seemed to not do the standard presentation and photo, prefering to move on to the trophy presentation. Thyis lead to a pissed off Tony, and some very pissed off fans (thanks for the call, Caz!). And allegedly, promionent Phoenix supporter Tambo spoke to Belfast GM Todd Kelman, who basiclly said 'tough', which needless to say did not go down too well at all.

Phew.

Then came Thursday where a clearly not trying, still knackered Phoenix almost took the full 2 points away from Hull without apparently trying. Hull needed OT and penalty shots to guarantee themselves the points in waht was a surprisingly hard fought game.

And thats pretty much that. I should be running the Twitter updates for todays game, but if you are going, I'll see you there.

Friday, March 20, 2009

this weeks update...

will be made on Sunday. I have not had the time to sort one out yet. Sorry.

So, again, Sunday (probably around lunchtime. Tune in.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The week in review

So, a busy week for us Phoenix fans, with 3 home ties in the space of 5 days.

And it was pretty successful too, 2 wins in league action, giving us an important 4 points in the battle for 5th place with Cardiff, and a 1 goal advantage in the CC Cup final to take to Belfast.

Of course, it wasn't all good. As is becoming oh so familiar, in 2 of the 3 games, despite taking the victories, the standard of reffering (and seeming bias) was shocking. Marco Coenen and Dean Smith are easily the poorest pair of refs we have in the EIHL.

Lets start with Mr Coenen. On Thursday night, with the Sky cameras in attendance, he gave a masterclass in 'how to piss people off and alienate them', by simply refusing to call the visiting Edinburgh team on any penalties until he himself was knocked on his arse by one of their reckless challenges by the boards. This happened 38 minutes into the game. Easily the longest I have ever seen any team play 'clean' hockey. Indeed, so offeneded were some of the (few) Phoenix Phaithful who were in attendance, he had to be escorted off the ice during the intervals (allegedly, I didn't see this). I honestly thought that this was the most inept display of officiating I had ever seen, or was likely to see again. Boy, was I wrong.

Enter Dean Smith. Probably the least experienced of the EIHL refs this season, and already proven to be unable to control a physical game (see the last game at Alty vs the Vipers for evidence of that), Mr Smith put on an absolute masterclass in bottling major calls, and blatant ineptitude.

Lets look at the 3 most heinous incidents from Sunday then:

1: The Phoenix have just gone 4-0 up in the 2nd period. Nathan Ward and George Awada chase the puck into the Phoenix zone, with Dean Smith looking directly at them. Awada proceeds to punch Ward very obviously in the face, and goes on to score. Smith does nothing, despite looking right at it.

2: Belfasts 3rd goal comes from a face off which was caused by a Giants player very clearly scooping the puck over the plexi. A straight 2 mins for delay of game, right? Nope, to the amazement of both sets of players, Smith simply signals for a face off.

3: Phillips cross checks Fulghum into the boards, which caused Tony Hand of all people to try and get at him. Another no call.

He also decide don a numbe rof occasions to send players from both sides th the box for incidents which would have required a 'one way or the other' decision, thus avoiding any tricky calls, and potential back-chat.

Being honest, I'm sure Smith is a nice guy, and he does show potential, but to be sent to ref a 'showpiece' event (CC Final 1st Leg)... nah, a game like that, espcially given the intensity it was always likely to be played at, required, nay demanded a Carson or a Hanson. Someone with the balls and authority to make tough calls, and stick to them.

Anyways, the good things were that in all 3 games, the boys looked great. Especially the Belfast game, where they were all hitting anything in a Belfast jersey with real intent and passion.

And apologies to the Belfast fan who I had a short debate with after the game. Adrenaline and passion make fools of us all, and I did not mean to be so rude. I humbly apologise.

Bring on the 2nd leg and the KO Cup Final!

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Quick note

I'll do a full review of the week later on (hopefully).

And don't forget the Twitter score updates.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Tweet Tweet!

Starting on Tuesday for the home game vs. Basingstoke, I will be starting to do some score and incident updates via my shiny new Twitter account, viewable here: The Pyres Twitter page

Enjoy!

Well, it could have been worse.

So we return to the norm for our games against the Blaze (or Blades as the tickets issued by the rink had it), by losing.

And, in my opinion, 6-2 was perhaps a touch flattering towards our visitors from Coventry. The first 2 Blaze goals had a significant element of luck to them, and Smurph had a real 'off' night. The forwards did good though, trying right to the end to get us back into the game. On any other night Fulghum could have bagged a hat trick with ease, but the luck just wasn't there. Ah well, there are always the games on Tuesday and Thursday to look forward to (should be 4 points, but if not...).

My only major gripe really was the fact we only had 2 on ice officials. 1 ref, 1 lino, which in my opinion isnt good enough for the 'top' league in the country. The EIHL likes to posit itself as a professional league, comparable to mainland Europes best, yet I cannot imagine a DEL game happening without a full quota of officials present. This naturally affected the reffing, as Boniface (for twas he), was consistently behind the puck as he had to cover 1 of the blue lines looking for offside infractions.

Ah well. As long as we beat the Bison and the Capitals midweek I won't complain too much. 4 points from 6 will be more than respectable.